The more the world appears to ‘fall apart’ the more I am called to rest in peace ; to open my heart to the flowing moment in trust and make my home in its presence.
This does of course embrace the world – but not as it is portrayed by the mind of the separated self sense – but as the movement of the fulfilment of God.
This I would learn to discern and accept as the Abundance of Truth – in which all the qualities of Truth are beheld in gratitude, glory, wonder and delight, recognition and awe.
This may seem impossible to believe – yet I tell you the world you see is impossible. But the very light of awareness remains as it is – and not other than as it is – no matter what thoughts are engaged.
To look out and interpret anything from a separate self sense is an illusory insanity – no matter how many seem to share the will to do so.
That we have done this may be a habit hard to shed, but the value of a redeemed and restored heart and mind cannot be overstated – for by the use to which you accept for the gift of life, will you know Creation – as its Son or Daughter -or suffer your own illusion – as a mad and tormented secret thing.
Reality is altogether now. Time is altogether not here.
Holiness is altogether true. The mind of sin is not now.
As we sow – or give, so shall we receive – or reap.
This is true Now and need relate not at all to a past or future.
Herein lies the open secret of salvation.
All that you are receiving is the same measure and kind as what you choose to give.
It does not seem to be that you can choose because the past seems joined to the future.
But you are here, now with me and no matter how thoughts and feelings may swarm or charm or seem to harm – the power of decision is your own.
To look on stark insanity may be the recognition that you are looking in entirely the wrong direction. All things serve the mind that loves truth – and the truth in every mind is such a love.
Blow the embers of truth that it grows and glows.
In such a light will you see aright.
2008/11/19
Allowing the heart expression in the day at hand
How is it that I write and you read – and a gift is shared?
I can look into my own heart with regard to what is revealing itself to me.
Perhaps I should say ‘I can look into the heart’ because I speak not of the broken or wounded heart that seems to be within the human drama – but the heart that simply knows, sees, intuits or discerns – whenever we are still enough and curious enough to ask of it - and trust what is uncovered.
If I listen and discern in the heart instead of recycling old judgements and reactions - I find sense of something alive and feel a movement within.
It’s like - just noticing something – in a present sort of way - and acting unselfconsciously from a natural impulse that arises from within it.
Such impulses are opportunities for gladness and they also can be easily overlooked and become unnoticed and ‘unconscious’ while we are otherwise engaged in following what we think we should be doing according to some stratagem or other that became complicated instead of actually fulfilling us.
So in between thinking about anything I write - do also simply look into your own heart with regard to what is revealing itself to you!
in Love's blessing
Brian
I can look into my own heart with regard to what is revealing itself to me.
Perhaps I should say ‘I can look into the heart’ because I speak not of the broken or wounded heart that seems to be within the human drama – but the heart that simply knows, sees, intuits or discerns – whenever we are still enough and curious enough to ask of it - and trust what is uncovered.
If I listen and discern in the heart instead of recycling old judgements and reactions - I find sense of something alive and feel a movement within.
It’s like - just noticing something – in a present sort of way - and acting unselfconsciously from a natural impulse that arises from within it.
Such impulses are opportunities for gladness and they also can be easily overlooked and become unnoticed and ‘unconscious’ while we are otherwise engaged in following what we think we should be doing according to some stratagem or other that became complicated instead of actually fulfilling us.
So in between thinking about anything I write - do also simply look into your own heart with regard to what is revealing itself to you!
in Love's blessing
Brian
2008/11/18
Am I - or do I see others as awake or enlightened?
Personally I find that person based statements miss the mark.
The idea of separate persons as awake is not how I would refer to Awakened Perspective.
To person based thought there is presumed something to ‘get’ or understand’ or ‘attain’ that differentiates asleep with awake.
But it is the person based thought that is subscribed to and invested in, that hides the wonder and the truth of You from your awareness via person based existence.
Jesus became a human conduit or transparency of communication and the communion of Divine love. He ‘saw the Holy Spirit in all whom he met’.
Person based thought inevitably ‘made him a special Person’ because to accept the Divine Expression as Truth ... is to release the world as a thing apart from God and ourselves apart from God. God is the only Life. Any other is imagination.
The western notions of God are also tending to be person based – often portraying a Cosmic Ego.
Our thinking minds are literally substituting for the direct appreciation of Reality and the inferred ‘thinker’ is imaged by such thoughts and ‘protected’ from thoughts that are believed to be in conflict with ‘me’.
Yet such preoccupation with 'me and mine' is at the cost of awareness and appreciation of the Living Moment.
I sometimes call it masked reality; Reality seen as it is not.
In any instant where one neglects or forgets to assert the mentality of the ‘me and mine’ there is some sense of simply being. This can be experienced in any kind of activity as being of a different order of consciousness, essentially of being held, lived, transported, perfectly coordinated, spoken or written or acting in a manner beyond one’s own historical capacity.
It may be instants or it may be for periods of time or become the normal state – but it is not really that someone has become awake – but that they have become unobstructed to that which is awake.
There is said to be a no return condition where the option to be obstructed is no longer available. Such a one could be called awake permanently – but is this a person who is awake so much as an Individuality who has realized its own Mind is not in any way limited or limitable.
Such realisation comes only to the perfectly trusting – and therefore free of any trace of guilt or judgement. Yet this Mind is Already Yours!
Those who allow the truth to give through them, have. To these will be added; ie: We grow in our willingness and acceptance.
To those who deny the gift in guilt and wilful miscreation, will be taken away even the little they have. Not because illusion is taken away – but because it is a little seeming that cannot abide and does not bear creative fruit.
Individuality is of God and that which is our Individuality is of the same. Yet the person is as a mask layer which must be translated. A bit like a thick black outline of enclosure and differentiation becoming lighter, more diffuse and evaporating – as our experience is one of widening circle of identity and participation in life lived. (Which is fact lived through us).
I offer this in simple sharing of what is helpful to my own ‘being with’.
And am grateful to have read it!
in Gratitude
Brian
The idea of separate persons as awake is not how I would refer to Awakened Perspective.
To person based thought there is presumed something to ‘get’ or understand’ or ‘attain’ that differentiates asleep with awake.
But it is the person based thought that is subscribed to and invested in, that hides the wonder and the truth of You from your awareness via person based existence.
Jesus became a human conduit or transparency of communication and the communion of Divine love. He ‘saw the Holy Spirit in all whom he met’.
Person based thought inevitably ‘made him a special Person’ because to accept the Divine Expression as Truth ... is to release the world as a thing apart from God and ourselves apart from God. God is the only Life. Any other is imagination.
The western notions of God are also tending to be person based – often portraying a Cosmic Ego.
Our thinking minds are literally substituting for the direct appreciation of Reality and the inferred ‘thinker’ is imaged by such thoughts and ‘protected’ from thoughts that are believed to be in conflict with ‘me’.
Yet such preoccupation with 'me and mine' is at the cost of awareness and appreciation of the Living Moment.
I sometimes call it masked reality; Reality seen as it is not.
In any instant where one neglects or forgets to assert the mentality of the ‘me and mine’ there is some sense of simply being. This can be experienced in any kind of activity as being of a different order of consciousness, essentially of being held, lived, transported, perfectly coordinated, spoken or written or acting in a manner beyond one’s own historical capacity.
It may be instants or it may be for periods of time or become the normal state – but it is not really that someone has become awake – but that they have become unobstructed to that which is awake.
There is said to be a no return condition where the option to be obstructed is no longer available. Such a one could be called awake permanently – but is this a person who is awake so much as an Individuality who has realized its own Mind is not in any way limited or limitable.
Such realisation comes only to the perfectly trusting – and therefore free of any trace of guilt or judgement. Yet this Mind is Already Yours!
Those who allow the truth to give through them, have. To these will be added; ie: We grow in our willingness and acceptance.
To those who deny the gift in guilt and wilful miscreation, will be taken away even the little they have. Not because illusion is taken away – but because it is a little seeming that cannot abide and does not bear creative fruit.
Individuality is of God and that which is our Individuality is of the same. Yet the person is as a mask layer which must be translated. A bit like a thick black outline of enclosure and differentiation becoming lighter, more diffuse and evaporating – as our experience is one of widening circle of identity and participation in life lived. (Which is fact lived through us).
I offer this in simple sharing of what is helpful to my own ‘being with’.
And am grateful to have read it!
in Gratitude
Brian
Undoing guilt by choosing from peace
When we notice that our spirits are about to dip or diminish because of something that we are about to do or that is happening or seemingly done to us ... pause ...
Guilt is only unconscious insofar as our mind is so quick in its programmed reaction – and that it was set up as a defence and is ‘hidden’ by clever means not unlike magicians who distract attention while doing something out of ‘sight’ but in front of our noses.
By pausing within what might otherwise be - a done deal – I allow an opportunity to notice and consider from a place of my (and therefore everyone’s) innate worth for love and peace in practical terms.
Joy is not too difficult to allow in all sorts of moments and situations – and from the appreciation of joy one can easily start to immediately recognise when it is undermined or lost.
Though there are things that seem to justify loss of joy – I hold that it is an act in my own heart and mind by which it collapses and I densify into the ‘necessities’ of whatever seems to call for sacrifice.
Until we awaken we are as slaves to fear in ways that we may or may not recognise. It is difficult to allow this into awareness without self judgements – but that is what is needed. To be able to just notice – in the act – what it is we are doing – and within that noticing – will grow guiltless awareness – from which you will clearly see a choice – when you see clearly.
In family disputes we can lose it and say and act in ways that hurt - and then catch ourselves and say truly that we do not mean hurt – and repent of it and resolve to choose better next time. Well sometimes it takes a concerted and consistent willingness held over many occasions to bring that resolve to bear fruit in the manner that one envisions – because every time our buttons are pushed we react before we realize that we are acting out of a history tape.
So don't worry if it seems to take lather rinse and repeat – just remember in your heart that you desire to learn of peace, how to accept it and be guided within its ways. Such a desire will not be long unfulfilled in answer – even if the answer is a step along the way where you realise what is also desired is countering the desire for peace.
The thing is to keep it moving – which is to say to not judge and get stuck in conclusions.
These are my words offered - but of course use your own understandings!
In Peace
Brian
Guilt is only unconscious insofar as our mind is so quick in its programmed reaction – and that it was set up as a defence and is ‘hidden’ by clever means not unlike magicians who distract attention while doing something out of ‘sight’ but in front of our noses.
By pausing within what might otherwise be - a done deal – I allow an opportunity to notice and consider from a place of my (and therefore everyone’s) innate worth for love and peace in practical terms.
Joy is not too difficult to allow in all sorts of moments and situations – and from the appreciation of joy one can easily start to immediately recognise when it is undermined or lost.
Though there are things that seem to justify loss of joy – I hold that it is an act in my own heart and mind by which it collapses and I densify into the ‘necessities’ of whatever seems to call for sacrifice.
Until we awaken we are as slaves to fear in ways that we may or may not recognise. It is difficult to allow this into awareness without self judgements – but that is what is needed. To be able to just notice – in the act – what it is we are doing – and within that noticing – will grow guiltless awareness – from which you will clearly see a choice – when you see clearly.
In family disputes we can lose it and say and act in ways that hurt - and then catch ourselves and say truly that we do not mean hurt – and repent of it and resolve to choose better next time. Well sometimes it takes a concerted and consistent willingness held over many occasions to bring that resolve to bear fruit in the manner that one envisions – because every time our buttons are pushed we react before we realize that we are acting out of a history tape.
So don't worry if it seems to take lather rinse and repeat – just remember in your heart that you desire to learn of peace, how to accept it and be guided within its ways. Such a desire will not be long unfulfilled in answer – even if the answer is a step along the way where you realise what is also desired is countering the desire for peace.
The thing is to keep it moving – which is to say to not judge and get stuck in conclusions.
These are my words offered - but of course use your own understandings!
In Peace
Brian
Simply leave a 'burning house' as you notice that there is suffering
"I will tell you how to consider any person you meet. Look on them as being like a man whose house has caught on fire. Would such a man cry, 'I'm not leaving until someone tells me why God made this happen.' No. He runs out of a burning house as fast as he can. The same is true of suffering. We must show people how to run away from it as fast as they can."This posting is not an explanation of the text above but is an offering that arose from a willingness to consider it, in response to an enquiry from one who asked - in terms that may share a living consideration in the heart.
~ Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra.
The mind in ignorance is mesmerised by its own confusions such that there is an illusion of having a life of one’s own, being hopeful of gaining fulfilment in a world of impermanence in which all things are arising, change and pass.
But this is actually a state of needless – unnecessary - limitation and discomfort.
It is a state of suffering arising from the attachments and beliefs that are held in heart and mind.
And the means employed in ignorance to overcome, distract or alleviate suffering will tend to further enslave the mind we share to the false identification from which the suffering arises.
Therefore when you meet one who seems to be an ‘other’, be willing to see his limitation or suffering as one with your own and do not seek to merely join him in suffering by making him NOT a brother. For that is the collusion by which truth is denied.
But allow truth to resolve the suffering that is within your own thought immediately and show him that he is awake by being the witness to his peace through your own.
For truth is peace.
Do not indulge taking thought beyond the willingness to drop into truth – undefined - and allow expression of intelligence of free awareness as called forth by trust itself.
For by letting life use mind and body to a shared goal the root of the separation fallacy is undermined and the bright clarity of selfless love stands clear as that which is – as it is.
The burning house is an illusion of compelling danger from which the mind will hide if it does not first calm and look at its own construct. For only by seeing it as it is will it be obvious that there is no one in it. Such realisation expresses as selfless service, compassion for all life and joyous and serene demeanour – that spontaneously awakens others to remember their true nature and so cease feeding and following false desires in ignorance.
But the nature of the fire is fuelled by thinking and false desire – and in order to look upon them in clear perspective, one must first exit their claim upon you as you. In this sense LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.
Only valuing the discernment of the heart can alert to illusion such that you simply desist, drop, desert or deny it.
Not denying illusion as if it is a power to be feared and resisted – or a problem to solve or a phenomenon to be understood – but to give it no further attention whilst maintaining active desire that is in alignment with truth –as presently FELT, or realised. Desire to be only of truth and to see the expression of truth.
It is the release of error that allows truth to dawn.
As love of truth sees only truth.
There is nothing that can assail it.
The entry into awakening arises from the realisation that one is in the fire of suffering – and that – no matter how it is presented to oneself or others – it is suffering – and the nature or cause of that suffering is the result of identification and thus attachment, to desires that define and confine the heart to illusory denial and exile.
Until one can be a demonstration of freedom, one cannot be the presence that spontaneously invites self awareness and transcendence or realisation. The desire to show others the way must be the gratitude to others as the light of the way itself – or else it is a game played out within a house divided.
Compassion is an expression of one-mindedness.
You who are of truth, do not desire in truth to suffer.
In Peace
Brian
2008/11/11
Ego identity is a mind trap
Ego identity is a mind trap. In software terms it is called an infinite loop - and it runs mechanically on until a different desire (program) replaces it as the active creative intent. At this level there is the freedom of true desire or the unfreedom of false desire. This is not really a choice! - but from following the false desire we have created the illusion of choice - and while we believe in it - we must consistently choose with willingness for truth - or the program of self illusion runs on until the next window of opportunity that notices or is called awake.
I recall the mediation image of sitting as the witness watching the river of all that arises to awareness and the meditation is simply to allow observation of all that arises without push or pull.
The actual practice may tend to be that of identifying with thought processes and waking up to that attention has been completely preoccupied for a period of thoughts. But that is the re-wakening of present awareness where the practice simply resumes. Whatever arises - allow it to be. In this process insight arises and can be allowed in the same manner but if the observer and the observed cease to be experienced as separate states then it is like the one in the sidecar with a fake steering wheel is not here. What is - Speaks Itself and knows itself.
When we awaken we see that there was never a moment when we were absent. For absence of Is can not be.
The only reason this is not obvious is by virtue of preferring to think you are the thinker.
In identification with the objects of your thought, you engage your attention within your imagination presenting perceptions faithful to your investment.
But there is only empty forms here. Not a life at all but a dream of a life.
Yet every instant of Life is a noticing - an awakening - to a direct awareness that bleeds through from time to time because we are not capable of suppressing life totally for it is what we are. Inescapably.
But it is soon wrapped and filtered in the world terms such as to be absorbed as part of the dream which is seeking to protect itself in your name.
What the world calls love is designed to keep an underlying hate denied. Denial is an ability made by the ego - so we let it be re-purposed by Holy Spirit who can use it on behalf of our truth instead of against it.
We give as we receive. And we receive as we give.
Though this can be seen within time its potency is always addressing our present.
Without denial the mind would recycle insanity-nonsense forever.
Deny access to anything whose purpose and intent is the undermining of your peace in which you discern and feel and know the love that you are.
Or in A Course in Miracles terms: 'deny the denial of truth'.
This goes on very fruitfully with regard to denial and to anyone reading who is interested - it is taken from:
A Course in Miracles: Text: Chapter 12. The Holy Spirit's Curriculum. I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit.
A Course in Miracles earliest editions are not copyrighted and can be read or downloaded freely online or bought from most bookstores.
One of many where it can be read online is http://courseinmiracles.com which I randomly googled as a convenience in case you want to follow from this page.
I recall the mediation image of sitting as the witness watching the river of all that arises to awareness and the meditation is simply to allow observation of all that arises without push or pull.
The actual practice may tend to be that of identifying with thought processes and waking up to that attention has been completely preoccupied for a period of thoughts. But that is the re-wakening of present awareness where the practice simply resumes. Whatever arises - allow it to be. In this process insight arises and can be allowed in the same manner but if the observer and the observed cease to be experienced as separate states then it is like the one in the sidecar with a fake steering wheel is not here. What is - Speaks Itself and knows itself.
When we awaken we see that there was never a moment when we were absent. For absence of Is can not be.
The only reason this is not obvious is by virtue of preferring to think you are the thinker.
In identification with the objects of your thought, you engage your attention within your imagination presenting perceptions faithful to your investment.
But there is only empty forms here. Not a life at all but a dream of a life.
Yet every instant of Life is a noticing - an awakening - to a direct awareness that bleeds through from time to time because we are not capable of suppressing life totally for it is what we are. Inescapably.
But it is soon wrapped and filtered in the world terms such as to be absorbed as part of the dream which is seeking to protect itself in your name.
What the world calls love is designed to keep an underlying hate denied. Denial is an ability made by the ego - so we let it be re-purposed by Holy Spirit who can use it on behalf of our truth instead of against it.
We give as we receive. And we receive as we give.
Though this can be seen within time its potency is always addressing our present.
Without denial the mind would recycle insanity-nonsense forever.
Deny access to anything whose purpose and intent is the undermining of your peace in which you discern and feel and know the love that you are.
Or in A Course in Miracles terms: 'deny the denial of truth'.
The Way to Remember God
Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth.
If to love oneself is to heal oneself, those who are sick do not love themselves.
Therefore, they are asking for the love that would heal them, but which they are denying to themselves.
If they knew the truth about themselves they could not be sick.
The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth.
The sick must heal themselves, for the truth is in them.
Yet having obscured it, the light in another mind must shine into theirs because that light is theirs.
This goes on very fruitfully with regard to denial and to anyone reading who is interested - it is taken from:
A Course in Miracles: Text: Chapter 12. The Holy Spirit's Curriculum. I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit.
A Course in Miracles earliest editions are not copyrighted and can be read or downloaded freely online or bought from most bookstores.
One of many where it can be read online is http://courseinmiracles.com which I randomly googled as a convenience in case you want to follow from this page.
Entranced in limited separate experience
The ego or false sense of self is the act of suppression, distortion or denial of truth.
That is its job description expressed in reverse terms to its maker.
Who is its maker?
Its maker is the thought of a wish - to assert illusion as truth - that you are attending to.
What thought?
The thought is a ‘what if? thought that is taken to “what would it be like to experience the ‘what if’ - as if it were real”, which then leads to "I wish to experience this".
Wish for what? Experience of what?
The thought of "what if truth is other than as it is". "What would it be like"
We are free to use our mind to have experience of limitation while the wish for it is enacted. Because this can be asked for and received as asked.
But once we engage and believe the experience - we immediately forget who we Are and do not recognise that we can accept this gift of experience we chose, as completed, and move on with the living desire that is in our heart now.
Why do we not recognise?
Because we experience limitation as separation and as if it is being done to us in return for what we believe we have just done.
What do we believe we have just done?
Our experience is one of loss of wholeness, loss of light, conflictedness of thought and desire, doubt of existence itself. It came as a direct result of the activity in our mind. It may not immediately have hit guilt and fear - but assertion of will always meets opposition. The use of raw unbridled assertion of will is blind and self attacking - but we experience ourselves as attacked and justifiably aggrieved.
Why don't we release it and allow truth to restore us?
We know we have willed differently and we treasure its experience in which we can assert and explore our seeming power and do not want to release it - but rather would use it to overcome the chaos that we suffer. This entrenches our enslaved identification further as we develop abilities to overcome or manage obstacles by further assertions of will and imaginative ingenuity. We become proud and think we have made a self in a hostile world that has limited power to tame it and live in it. But any peace is short lived and all defences have to be constantly maintained. The whole thing is an insanity of necessity amidst confusion and suffering. And we are afraid.
Why doesn't our Wholeness recall us to True Reason and Sanity?
The heart's knowing is and does call you and uses all you believe to show you that you are not as you think and reality is not as you perceive. It is ever active in gently loosening and undoing the blocks that you erected to defend against undoing of your own judgement. But can only work with your freely given willingness.
Direct awareness is denied attention from fear of loss and retribution - or it is denied from rage of abandonment. For the Truth does not and cannot play this game and sees it not.
The god that the ego makes is in its own image - so it is believed a separate Power to be placated. The belief in external reality takes the mind to believe that it is almost powerless. Yet seeking to harness and exploit all perceived powers to its own intent. But it is a process of depletion and for all the ingenuity applied - it runs out of capacity to function because there is a limit to the pain and suffering and meaninglessness that will be endured at which the ego stops and you ask in the heart "There must be a better way". The listening for the answer is the willingness to receive.
That is its job description expressed in reverse terms to its maker.
Who is its maker?
Its maker is the thought of a wish - to assert illusion as truth - that you are attending to.
What thought?
The thought is a ‘what if? thought that is taken to “what would it be like to experience the ‘what if’ - as if it were real”, which then leads to "I wish to experience this".
Wish for what? Experience of what?
The thought of "what if truth is other than as it is". "What would it be like"
We are free to use our mind to have experience of limitation while the wish for it is enacted. Because this can be asked for and received as asked.
But once we engage and believe the experience - we immediately forget who we Are and do not recognise that we can accept this gift of experience we chose, as completed, and move on with the living desire that is in our heart now.
Why do we not recognise?
Because we experience limitation as separation and as if it is being done to us in return for what we believe we have just done.
What do we believe we have just done?
Our experience is one of loss of wholeness, loss of light, conflictedness of thought and desire, doubt of existence itself. It came as a direct result of the activity in our mind. It may not immediately have hit guilt and fear - but assertion of will always meets opposition. The use of raw unbridled assertion of will is blind and self attacking - but we experience ourselves as attacked and justifiably aggrieved.
Why don't we release it and allow truth to restore us?
We know we have willed differently and we treasure its experience in which we can assert and explore our seeming power and do not want to release it - but rather would use it to overcome the chaos that we suffer. This entrenches our enslaved identification further as we develop abilities to overcome or manage obstacles by further assertions of will and imaginative ingenuity. We become proud and think we have made a self in a hostile world that has limited power to tame it and live in it. But any peace is short lived and all defences have to be constantly maintained. The whole thing is an insanity of necessity amidst confusion and suffering. And we are afraid.
Why doesn't our Wholeness recall us to True Reason and Sanity?
The heart's knowing is and does call you and uses all you believe to show you that you are not as you think and reality is not as you perceive. It is ever active in gently loosening and undoing the blocks that you erected to defend against undoing of your own judgement. But can only work with your freely given willingness.
Direct awareness is denied attention from fear of loss and retribution - or it is denied from rage of abandonment. For the Truth does not and cannot play this game and sees it not.
The god that the ego makes is in its own image - so it is believed a separate Power to be placated. The belief in external reality takes the mind to believe that it is almost powerless. Yet seeking to harness and exploit all perceived powers to its own intent. But it is a process of depletion and for all the ingenuity applied - it runs out of capacity to function because there is a limit to the pain and suffering and meaninglessness that will be endured at which the ego stops and you ask in the heart "There must be a better way". The listening for the answer is the willingness to receive.
2008/11/10
New Testament reveals your awakening - as you are willing to accept
What is it that makes your life Alive - and leads to a greater fuller appreciation and participation in life?
Joseph Campbell’s famously invited his students to 'follow your bliss'. This was meant profoundly in terms of a very soul sense of vocation or calling. Doing so might not fit into the structures of social expectations - but always expresses the passion and presence of being.
Joseph Campbell is known and valued for his work exploring myth, symbol and story as the evidence of a common spiritual intelligence and calling, in all of humanity, from its primitive beginnings through to the higher consciousness or transformative realisations of spiritual awakening.
I see this common spiritual intelligence as many in form and yet as one in spirit and I call it Holy Spirit - though It doesn't mind what terms or symbols are used to bring your attention present within.
The above is from a book that I have the highest regard for and have welcomed as an ongoing companion: 'The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament, A Course in Understanding and Acceptance'. (NTI in short - New Testament Interpretations), it was written by Regina Dawn Akers within a process of guided listening. This book is literally written from a place of open willingness in trust and its message speaks directly to the awakening in our minds - because that IS the true message of the New testament - as well as the ONLY function of the Holy Spirit. That is my witness - but don't take my word - or its message - as truth. Listen in your heart to discern whether your truth is speaking to you.
The approach of ‘Holy Spirit Interpretation’ is that of using the symbol and story in our mind to teach the mind what it is, and what you are not - for our own minds have become confused and act as if they are subjects to their own thinking. We have become those ‘who know not what they do’.
Do we not each tend to believe and experience ourselves as if we are in fact the central character in our own version of a script that we interpret and accord reality to?
We may not on surface think we are trying to think or make reality - and that we are just ‘being ourselves’ - but if being in silence brings restlessness, discomfort or agitation, it is a symptom of a running program of compulsive thinking that has as part of its purpose the function of covering over your truth with what you are thinking. It is as if our so called conscious mind is defended against what truth actually is - and what we actually are - in order to maintain a wish to act out and be in its own determination of truth.
One aspect of false ‘self’ is that it is a mask. A presentation that is designed to serve a purpose or desire in the one who adopts it.
As a masked presentation we may get satisfactions from maintaining and strengthening our mask - but these only serve to deepen our identifying with it as if it were our self.
But the only real fulfilment in life is felt in the heart of who we actually are - and can never be experienced or accepted in who we are trying to be - or indeed attempting to 'not be', in attempt to escape what we fear we are or judge against.
The masquerade is demonstrably a way that we can use our mind - but equally obvious is that it does not bring the experience of joy freely shared - for it engages in self limiting thought - so at some point it always inevitably runs out of juice. We might experience this as crisis of meaning or identity and, as a result, begin a process of reconnecting with our Original Mind or the True desire of the heart. And learning to live from a restored sense of Grounded life.
Unlike the complexity and self-identifications of our own thinking processes, movement of true desire, arises from our peace or wholeness of being - and though we may 'hear it' in terms of the content of our mind, it carries a tone and quality that transcends our our fragmented and dissociated sense of 'command and control' self - and restores a sense and awareness of communion, connection and purpose arising from the heart itself.
In terms of the human world-mind, following our calling will shine a light and will also be the path that we accept in which light is seen - where darkness seemed to be.
‘Light’ here is used for inspiration, joy, truth, passion and presence.
‘Darkness’ is used here to represent ignorance, belief in guilt or unworthiness, fear, conflict and facade.
Here is a snip in from NTI (New Testament Interpretations - NTI for short). It arose from searching within it for the text 'true desire' and choosing the first findings that offered a sketch of the book’s message. It is - as I say direct and to the point - but never coercive. It is in your own heart that you discern and accept truth. This is your freedom and it that is itself true.
from "The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament" 2 Corinthians, Chapter 4. (See Footnote below)
The New Testament itself is rich in inspiration but also controversial and often confusing because it is interpreted by minds that are not free of guilt and fear. Holy Spirit is free of guilt and fear and can translate and interpret the mind by which we believe them so as to release or undo the false mind that arose from making judgement.
The term 'Holy Spirit' points to the living Voice for God - or Living Truth - for even as the human mind seemed to separate in the ‘fall’ from Eden, our truth remains that part of our mind which never left nor can leave its Source. And to the mind experiencing separation, serves the function of guide and awakener to restore your self to You.
It is this Voice and Mind that Jesus felt, heard, discerned and gave witness to - and became one with - and called (down) to our attention. It is not an external 'Authority' that can be used in the world for manipulation - but is the Guide within that - according to your willingness - reveals your true desire to you. It is holy because it is altogether present and without guilt and is spirit because what is, IS - beyond belief or concept - but is known by its effect or fruit in our heart and in our lives.
Desire is the creative force. What you hold in your heart will call forth and govern all that comes from it. But to release the heart of your demands and listen for the movement or prayer that is already there is to awaken to the life that is. Waking up is not something that the ego mentality does - it is the dawning in the mind that the ego mentality is an ego mentality - and nothing need be done to it or with it. It is put behind and released regardless of its recurrence as a habit.
The voice for ego is legion - yet it is all one illusion. It is that which hides love from you and hides you from love. The most significant thing that can be said is that when you look upon it - you clearly will see that you do not want it or what it offers. It is this that withdraws its only support.
Yet it will attempt to use your mind to convince you not to look on it, and it is bringing and maintaining willingness to persist in asking the heart amidst temptation to fear, doubt or judge against yourself or another in your stead.
From 'The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament',
(NTI) 1 Corinthians Ch 8
I trust my enthusiasm has not made my invitation in any way an attempt to persuade.
That is not my desire!
In Peace
Brian
Footnote: Two chapters of the book - Mathew and Acts are freely downloadable from the web address below and there are online resources where much more can be read and discussed if interested.
In the first instance I felt to just bring it to attention and sense that some of you will be glad to find it.
"The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament"
Copyright © 2008 by The Foundation for the Holy Spirit, Inc.
http://www.forholyspirit.org
Regina's Website:
www.reginadawnakers.com
NTI study group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NTIStudyGroup/
NTI discussion group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NTIDiscussionGroup/
My review of NTI - at the publishers site
http://tinyurl.com/3olyvw
Joseph Campbell’s famously invited his students to 'follow your bliss'. This was meant profoundly in terms of a very soul sense of vocation or calling. Doing so might not fit into the structures of social expectations - but always expresses the passion and presence of being.
Joseph Campbell is known and valued for his work exploring myth, symbol and story as the evidence of a common spiritual intelligence and calling, in all of humanity, from its primitive beginnings through to the higher consciousness or transformative realisations of spiritual awakening.
I see this common spiritual intelligence as many in form and yet as one in spirit and I call it Holy Spirit - though It doesn't mind what terms or symbols are used to bring your attention present within.
Know that the Holy Spirit is yours and is you, and so it is within you. It is your own guide that leads you from the prison you have made to the freedom that you are. Seek no place else, except within. Seek within your own Heart for that which you want, and ask it to lead you to your place of freedom. Then go with it as it asks, doing as it commands, seeking not for another way to be free. For it is your Holy Spirit that remembers freedom for you, and so it is your Holy Spirit that will lead you to return to it there.~ NTI Acts, Chapter 12 1. (See footnote below)
The above is from a book that I have the highest regard for and have welcomed as an ongoing companion: 'The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament, A Course in Understanding and Acceptance'. (NTI in short - New Testament Interpretations), it was written by Regina Dawn Akers within a process of guided listening. This book is literally written from a place of open willingness in trust and its message speaks directly to the awakening in our minds - because that IS the true message of the New testament - as well as the ONLY function of the Holy Spirit. That is my witness - but don't take my word - or its message - as truth. Listen in your heart to discern whether your truth is speaking to you.
The approach of ‘Holy Spirit Interpretation’ is that of using the symbol and story in our mind to teach the mind what it is, and what you are not - for our own minds have become confused and act as if they are subjects to their own thinking. We have become those ‘who know not what they do’.
Do we not each tend to believe and experience ourselves as if we are in fact the central character in our own version of a script that we interpret and accord reality to?
We may not on surface think we are trying to think or make reality - and that we are just ‘being ourselves’ - but if being in silence brings restlessness, discomfort or agitation, it is a symptom of a running program of compulsive thinking that has as part of its purpose the function of covering over your truth with what you are thinking. It is as if our so called conscious mind is defended against what truth actually is - and what we actually are - in order to maintain a wish to act out and be in its own determination of truth.
One aspect of false ‘self’ is that it is a mask. A presentation that is designed to serve a purpose or desire in the one who adopts it.
As a masked presentation we may get satisfactions from maintaining and strengthening our mask - but these only serve to deepen our identifying with it as if it were our self.
But the only real fulfilment in life is felt in the heart of who we actually are - and can never be experienced or accepted in who we are trying to be - or indeed attempting to 'not be', in attempt to escape what we fear we are or judge against.
The masquerade is demonstrably a way that we can use our mind - but equally obvious is that it does not bring the experience of joy freely shared - for it engages in self limiting thought - so at some point it always inevitably runs out of juice. We might experience this as crisis of meaning or identity and, as a result, begin a process of reconnecting with our Original Mind or the True desire of the heart. And learning to live from a restored sense of Grounded life.
Unlike the complexity and self-identifications of our own thinking processes, movement of true desire, arises from our peace or wholeness of being - and though we may 'hear it' in terms of the content of our mind, it carries a tone and quality that transcends our our fragmented and dissociated sense of 'command and control' self - and restores a sense and awareness of communion, connection and purpose arising from the heart itself.
In terms of the human world-mind, following our calling will shine a light and will also be the path that we accept in which light is seen - where darkness seemed to be.
‘Light’ here is used for inspiration, joy, truth, passion and presence.
‘Darkness’ is used here to represent ignorance, belief in guilt or unworthiness, fear, conflict and facade.
Here is a snip in from NTI (New Testament Interpretations - NTI for short). It arose from searching within it for the text 'true desire' and choosing the first findings that offered a sketch of the book’s message. It is - as I say direct and to the point - but never coercive. It is in your own heart that you discern and accept truth. This is your freedom and it that is itself true.
"This is how death and resurrection are to be acted out through you:
Truth cannot die, so Truth need not be resurrected. Truth simply Is, and it always Is without beginning and without end.
What is it, then, that must die? What is there to be resurrected?
Your belief in illusions must die so that your awareness of what Is may be resurrected through you. (v. 7 – 12).
Your belief is expressed through thought. Above all else, watch your thoughts. What are you allowing your thoughts to think? Are you thinking of the illusion of the world as if it is real? If so, you are expressing your desire to accept the veil of darkness. Is this your true desire? If not, why do you permit yourself to express it through the activity of your thoughts?
Watch your thoughts. Ask them to express your true desire. Your thoughts must do as you ask, because you are the thinker of your thoughts. Let them express your true desire, and if they do not, let them go. (v. 13 – 15).
Fix your eyes and your thoughts on the true desire of your heart, not because it is your hope for the future, but because it is your reality now. You are what your heart tells you you are. You do not see it, because you do not focus yourself there.
Focus on the world, and you will believe the world. Believe the world, and you choose to keep the veil, which hides your truth.
Focus on your heart in all of your thoughts, and you choose not to choose the veil. You choose that the veil may be lifted, so you may see your truth and your brother’s truth, and to know in the joy of your heart that it is true". (v. 16 – 18).
from "The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament" 2 Corinthians, Chapter 4. (See Footnote below)
The New Testament itself is rich in inspiration but also controversial and often confusing because it is interpreted by minds that are not free of guilt and fear. Holy Spirit is free of guilt and fear and can translate and interpret the mind by which we believe them so as to release or undo the false mind that arose from making judgement.
The term 'Holy Spirit' points to the living Voice for God - or Living Truth - for even as the human mind seemed to separate in the ‘fall’ from Eden, our truth remains that part of our mind which never left nor can leave its Source. And to the mind experiencing separation, serves the function of guide and awakener to restore your self to You.
It is this Voice and Mind that Jesus felt, heard, discerned and gave witness to - and became one with - and called (down) to our attention. It is not an external 'Authority' that can be used in the world for manipulation - but is the Guide within that - according to your willingness - reveals your true desire to you. It is holy because it is altogether present and without guilt and is spirit because what is, IS - beyond belief or concept - but is known by its effect or fruit in our heart and in our lives.
Desire is the creative force. What you hold in your heart will call forth and govern all that comes from it. But to release the heart of your demands and listen for the movement or prayer that is already there is to awaken to the life that is. Waking up is not something that the ego mentality does - it is the dawning in the mind that the ego mentality is an ego mentality - and nothing need be done to it or with it. It is put behind and released regardless of its recurrence as a habit.
The voice for ego is legion - yet it is all one illusion. It is that which hides love from you and hides you from love. The most significant thing that can be said is that when you look upon it - you clearly will see that you do not want it or what it offers. It is this that withdraws its only support.
Yet it will attempt to use your mind to convince you not to look on it, and it is bringing and maintaining willingness to persist in asking the heart amidst temptation to fear, doubt or judge against yourself or another in your stead.
"When you do not seem to know how to become an empty shell, it is because you are focusing on your head, or better-said, on your thinking mind. Your thinking mind will not teach you how to not think. Your thinking mind is interested in its own survival, so it will take the time you give it to think some more.
When you notice your mind is full, and you want to become as an empty shell, you must refocus your mind from your head to your heart. Your heart will teach your mind the way of release, because your heart is love. (v.s 1- 3)..
Your heart, being of love, knows one purpose, and that is love. Your head, being of thinking, knows many purposes, because that is thinking. Let go of the confusion of the head, and focus yourself on the purpose of the heart. Focusing on one purpose leads you clearly in one direction, but focusing on many purposes does not lead you at all".
From 'The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament',
(NTI) 1 Corinthians Ch 8
I trust my enthusiasm has not made my invitation in any way an attempt to persuade.
That is not my desire!
In Peace
Brian
Footnote: Two chapters of the book - Mathew and Acts are freely downloadable from the web address below and there are online resources where much more can be read and discussed if interested.
In the first instance I felt to just bring it to attention and sense that some of you will be glad to find it.
"The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament"
Copyright © 2008 by The Foundation for the Holy Spirit, Inc.
http://www.forholyspirit.org
Regina's Website:
www.reginadawnakers.com
NTI study group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NTIStudyGroup/
NTI discussion group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NTIDiscussionGroup/
My review of NTI - at the publishers site
http://tinyurl.com/3olyvw
2008/11/05
Allowing the mind to Rest
Do you know that dormitory or sleepover thing - where we are all not being able to get to rest and let sleep come?
"Ok - no more talking"
"OK - from now on"
"Thats it then"
"Shhs!"
"Quiet"
"You spoke!"
"Only cos you did first"
"I thought we decided to go to sleep now!"
"Oo bossy!"
"takes one to know one"
"clever clogs!"
(pillow flies across room)
That sort of dynamic reminds of the mind that wont settle.
I have felt it like a feather that almost lands but a sudden updraft spirals it again.
Something in the mind that just wont let go of one more thing...
It is not easy to play repartee alone - so the more who rest regardless of apparent stimuli - the louder and clearer is the invitation to rest.
The world does not look like it will cease to be a stimuli for reaction anytime soon - so that suggests nipping reaction in the bud and depriving it the first blow. This is easier than turning the other cheek - which can be a profound demonstration of defenceless acceptance without judgement.
The first blow must - to be a blow - find a target.
Yet that can not be the truth of what I am.
So if I feel upset or interrupted of my peace,
I must be wanting something that deprives me of resting in the Truth.
In seeing that what I do want is to rest in truth I also see that I am not under threat - and nor have I an investment that needs to be defended.
What of the apparent behaviours?
They cease to be seen from a me position and can be addressed - if they need any overt response - in whatever way fits the capacity for communication in that moment.
What of 'irksome people'?
They never left the mind that created them! - but become a source of gratitude to Holy Spirit for raising awareness to regain its remembrance as awareness.
Do I get annoyed?
Well I sure have and still can - but it has become so clear to me that this is a perpetuation of pain and futility made dense - when I know I love joy and freedom are Who I Really Am - that I don't allow it anymore.
The Who I Really Am is enough of what I identify - that I do not find the resources to engage and maintain and fight - for anything.
Yet amidst such incapacity for conflicted being - a moment of sharing truth can occur that draws Whole and Present engagement and response. So I am All here - but conflict - as something I can believe - is increasingly Not Here.
In its place is a game the mind plays.
I guess if it was juicy for me I would still 'go for it!'
But without that carrot is the present expanding and casting off its fetters.
And the desires that arise in and of this presence carry all the power and strength for their fulfilment within themselves and have not enemy or obstacle in truth - as the step is taken.
brian in a moment
"Ok - no more talking"
"OK - from now on"
"Thats it then"
"Shhs!"
"Quiet"
"You spoke!"
"Only cos you did first"
"I thought we decided to go to sleep now!"
"Oo bossy!"
"takes one to know one"
"clever clogs!"
(pillow flies across room)
That sort of dynamic reminds of the mind that wont settle.
I have felt it like a feather that almost lands but a sudden updraft spirals it again.
Something in the mind that just wont let go of one more thing...
It is not easy to play repartee alone - so the more who rest regardless of apparent stimuli - the louder and clearer is the invitation to rest.
The world does not look like it will cease to be a stimuli for reaction anytime soon - so that suggests nipping reaction in the bud and depriving it the first blow. This is easier than turning the other cheek - which can be a profound demonstration of defenceless acceptance without judgement.
The first blow must - to be a blow - find a target.
Yet that can not be the truth of what I am.
So if I feel upset or interrupted of my peace,
I must be wanting something that deprives me of resting in the Truth.
In seeing that what I do want is to rest in truth I also see that I am not under threat - and nor have I an investment that needs to be defended.
What of the apparent behaviours?
They cease to be seen from a me position and can be addressed - if they need any overt response - in whatever way fits the capacity for communication in that moment.
What of 'irksome people'?
They never left the mind that created them! - but become a source of gratitude to Holy Spirit for raising awareness to regain its remembrance as awareness.
Do I get annoyed?
Well I sure have and still can - but it has become so clear to me that this is a perpetuation of pain and futility made dense - when I know I love joy and freedom are Who I Really Am - that I don't allow it anymore.
The Who I Really Am is enough of what I identify - that I do not find the resources to engage and maintain and fight - for anything.
Yet amidst such incapacity for conflicted being - a moment of sharing truth can occur that draws Whole and Present engagement and response. So I am All here - but conflict - as something I can believe - is increasingly Not Here.
In its place is a game the mind plays.
I guess if it was juicy for me I would still 'go for it!'
But without that carrot is the present expanding and casting off its fetters.
And the desires that arise in and of this presence carry all the power and strength for their fulfilment within themselves and have not enemy or obstacle in truth - as the step is taken.
brian in a moment
2008/11/04
“This is my Child – Who is my Joy Extending”
Jesus came to fulfil the law and yet transcend the law in love.
That is what came to my mind when I considered that, though the term ‘Holy Spirit’ may be particular to specific teachings, the living experience of this One is of Intimately recognised Friend who has never not been with us, within our thought and heart through all our days. But had not been discerned so directly, for the way had not then been made straight!
But as with the parable of the wheat and the tares, our experience of the world mixes and confuses the false with truths. For a time they grow together until at harvest they are sorted.
As the truth of our heart’s desire breaks through and is felt more clearly, so the desire of our truth becomes the seat of our identity and we find we will not tolerate loveless-ness as our truth - but that it is too alien and uncomfortable to make a home in – much less a fortress - even though our temporal experience may seem to proclaim it real.
“There must be a way – a better way – a way of Life not death - and I call for this out of a faith that I find in my heart of hearts”.
“I am the willingness to be the instrument of the Way of Life which I – of myself - do not and can not know – but will be shown me – as I ask – in love – of my Father.”
“This is my Child – Who is my Joy Extending”.
--
The devil or Satan was the symbol for which we now often use ego – and as the term 'ego' becomes associated in our minds with a power of guilt and fear, it too will become limited in its usefulness.
The tempter is that wish and its voice that sees all things in terms of ‘me, myself and mine’ and will use the teaching even as it already uses the Kingdom of Heaven – as a basis for substitution for establishing its own self illusion.
Picking out truths and presenting them so as to get a sense of position, wealth or power – yet the final temptation of Jesus in the desert reveals its bottom line – ‘Worship me and take dominion of all things’.
This is the ego’s promise and we who listen still are yet deceived that we are in control and that we can get the good - or get out from the bad - by our own power – not realising that this act is the loss of awareness of true Power in which the Good is guaranteed and the evil is - not here.
But must I turn from the voice of division and put it behind me or I choose to be deceived.
In The Urantia Book – or was it one of the other Gospels? – Jesus had begun teaching, and doing the works of love and yet become sore in his heart that none were actually thirsty for Truth and this led him to go out into the wilderness and confront and reject the false or self will, inevitably associated with the disappointments that stem from asserting “I want it thus!”.
Somewhere in A Course in Miracles, Jesus likens ego-perception itself as a temper tantrum (an tempter trauma) that expresses “I want it thus!”.
To begin to discern that such a voice has us by the ear is to begin to release it - and let the Light correct our misperceptions of all things.
- - -
This posting arose out of a shared study of the Bible and of the Holy Spirit Interpretations given in NTI.
This is sharing the journey in a like manner to how the NTI came to be.
I am enjoying reading a passage a day and walking with others who are doing the same.
The reading schedule is only 4 days in and can be gotten here as a pdf or as a word document inside the yahoo group.
The 1st Book of NTI Matthew is freely available Here as a pdf.
And we are discussing it Here .
in Love's blessing
Brian
That is what came to my mind when I considered that, though the term ‘Holy Spirit’ may be particular to specific teachings, the living experience of this One is of Intimately recognised Friend who has never not been with us, within our thought and heart through all our days. But had not been discerned so directly, for the way had not then been made straight!
But as with the parable of the wheat and the tares, our experience of the world mixes and confuses the false with truths. For a time they grow together until at harvest they are sorted.
As the truth of our heart’s desire breaks through and is felt more clearly, so the desire of our truth becomes the seat of our identity and we find we will not tolerate loveless-ness as our truth - but that it is too alien and uncomfortable to make a home in – much less a fortress - even though our temporal experience may seem to proclaim it real.
“There must be a way – a better way – a way of Life not death - and I call for this out of a faith that I find in my heart of hearts”.
“I am the willingness to be the instrument of the Way of Life which I – of myself - do not and can not know – but will be shown me – as I ask – in love – of my Father.”
“This is my Child – Who is my Joy Extending”.
--
The devil or Satan was the symbol for which we now often use ego – and as the term 'ego' becomes associated in our minds with a power of guilt and fear, it too will become limited in its usefulness.
The tempter is that wish and its voice that sees all things in terms of ‘me, myself and mine’ and will use the teaching even as it already uses the Kingdom of Heaven – as a basis for substitution for establishing its own self illusion.
Picking out truths and presenting them so as to get a sense of position, wealth or power – yet the final temptation of Jesus in the desert reveals its bottom line – ‘Worship me and take dominion of all things’.
This is the ego’s promise and we who listen still are yet deceived that we are in control and that we can get the good - or get out from the bad - by our own power – not realising that this act is the loss of awareness of true Power in which the Good is guaranteed and the evil is - not here.
But must I turn from the voice of division and put it behind me or I choose to be deceived.
In The Urantia Book – or was it one of the other Gospels? – Jesus had begun teaching, and doing the works of love and yet become sore in his heart that none were actually thirsty for Truth and this led him to go out into the wilderness and confront and reject the false or self will, inevitably associated with the disappointments that stem from asserting “I want it thus!”.
Somewhere in A Course in Miracles, Jesus likens ego-perception itself as a temper tantrum (an tempter trauma) that expresses “I want it thus!”.
To begin to discern that such a voice has us by the ear is to begin to release it - and let the Light correct our misperceptions of all things.
- - -
This posting arose out of a shared study of the Bible and of the Holy Spirit Interpretations given in NTI.
This is sharing the journey in a like manner to how the NTI came to be.
I am enjoying reading a passage a day and walking with others who are doing the same.
The reading schedule is only 4 days in and can be gotten here as a pdf or as a word document inside the yahoo group.
The 1st Book of NTI Matthew is freely available Here as a pdf.
And we are discussing it Here .
in Love's blessing
Brian
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
